ArcelorMittal supplied 10,345 tonnes of steel for an ambitious project to construct a 57-storey skyscraper in a record-breaking 19 days.

Broad Sustainable Building made headlines for constructing the high-rise in Changsha, China, at the equivalent rate of three storeys per day, using a total of 10,345 tonnes of HISTAR® beams, supplied by ArcelorMittal Europe's long products plant in Differdange, Luxembourg.

ArcelorMittal played a pivotal role in bringing the ambitious project to fruition, providing the best-suited steels for the structure and counselling Broad Sustainable Building to use rolled sections instead of built-up sections to speed up the fabrication. The HISTAR® beams contributed to the speedy fabrication of the vast amount of steel "trees" required to construct the building's core.

Spanning 80,000sqm, the iconic high-rise known as "Mini Sky City" will provide 800 apartments and office space for 4,000 people. The skyscraper is built with 90-percent, factory-produced, LEGO-like blocks, using a modular construction technique which won BSB a CTBUH Innovation Award in 2013.

"Time is money and the modular construction is going to change the way small and tall buildings are constructed all over the world", said Jacques Braun, a general manager at ArcelorMittal. "The combination of recyclable high-strength steel and rolled sections in HISTAR® is ideal for achieving the fastest, safest and most economical structures".

Image: one of the steel "trees"

HISTAR® steels are quenched and self-tempered (QST) steels with market-leading weldability and ductility. Supplied in several different grades, these ArcelorMittal steels have been used in skyscrapers worldwide, including the Freedom Tower in New York and the World Financial Center in Shanghai.

Want to know more?

> Watch a time lapse video of the project here

> Watch a short in-house video by colleague Jean-Claude Gerardy

>ArcelorMittal to supply steel fibres to the Doha Metro project in Qatar

>Ferrari builds state-of-the-art Formula 1 centre with ArcelorMittal Steel

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